


Loathing, as a Pretense

by frozenCinders



Category: Bx: Execute (OFF Fangame)
Genre: CSRverse, Gen, Suicidal Ideation, generally pretty creepy because. lepi likes to Change things, mentions of body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25429576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenCinders/pseuds/frozenCinders
Summary: Even before his 500 year tenure, Lenny has always known just what buttons to push to grate people's nerves down to nothing; he just used to have the decency to restrain himself.
Relationships: Borbo | Lenore Thaddeus & Lepi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Loathing, as a Pretense

Lepi thinks the reason people dislike him is because he's too openly full of himself. He thinks the reason people fear him is because of the silly faces he makes, the way he disfigures himself and lets blood stream down his face just to fuck with people. Really, it's the way he's so entitled to his "gift". It's the way nothing that breathes is safe from his touch, should he get bored.

His file is always barren. What creatures do live hide desperately from him, for so many good reasons. It's funny how Lenny sees him as a bit of a pushover nonetheless, even as he lies limbless and immobile, waiting for his regeneration to allow him to leave. When Lepi makes his changes, it doesn't hurt. People get scared when he brushes their backs and wings sprout through their clothes, when he grabs their faces in his hands and adds more eyes, when he sweeps a kick across their feet and leaves talons where their toes were. But it never hurts-- not physically.

The inhabitants never do anything to prompt Lepi's changes, but Lenny just finds it funny to piss him off. He knows there's a reason he's been "left to starve", as if that even matters to a creature like him. Even before his 500 year tenure, Lenny has always known just what buttons to push to grate people's nerves down to nothing; he just used to have the decency to restrain himself.

It's because Lepi's file is so empty that he's confused when he hears footsteps. He can't turn to see if it's him, but he assumes he'd hear concerned stuttering by now if it were an inhabitant. If Lenny didn't have his ability to speak revoked, he'd taunt Lepi even from here. Hell, he feels like his voice might be coming back already.

He hears Lepi sit next to him. A hand hovers over his head, either hesitant, reluctant, or probably both, before coming to rest atop Lenny's helmet. Lenny tries to ask if he's not done with him yet, but all that comes out is a crackling rasp, and then he convulses with silent laughter at the thought that he finally sounds his age. Lepi's hand leaves him for a few mere seconds, filled with more hesitation, and then it's on him again and Lenny can feel his vocal chords weaving back into place.

"Aww, see, you do like my company. Who else would willingly talk to you?" he immediately taunts. He can see Lepi's fingers curl on his visor, and then he punches him in the chest and Lenny finds he has limbs again.

He sits up and looks at Lepi. He has his usual face on, and he is pointedly looking away. Lenny tilts into his line of sight, and Lepi disappears the eyes from his face just to not have to look at him. Lenny laughs.

"As much as I loathe your gift, it won't leave me no matter what I do. I would have been fine," he tells him. It's nothing Lepi doesn't already know.

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to forget who you are?"

His eyes have come back just to glower at Lenny.

"No, I just thought you were stupid enough to forget how to talk!"

"Why don't I take just one leg and watch you hop home? Maybe I'll even move it to the center."

"Ohh, a human pogo stick? Sounds obnoxious."

"Then it would suit you perfectly."

"Hello, kettle? Pot here."

"Shut up."

"Did you know--"

Lepi grabs the front of Lenny's helmet and his grade seeps through it to steal his mouth away. Over his obscenely long life, though, Lenny has learned plenty of languages.

"It's almost like you kissed me," he signs. Lepi doesn't seem to understand.

To better get his point across, Lenny presses his fingers to his helmet, just over where his mouth would be, and holds them there for a second before extending them towards Lepi-- a mimicry of blowing a kiss. When Lepi realizes this, he instantly recoils, squinting in disgust.

Lenny laughs without a voice again, his shoulders shaking in his mirth.

"Even without a mouth, you won't shut the fuck up. You infuriate me."

Lenny draws out the shape of a kettle in the air.

"Stop it before I take your arms again," he threatens.

Lenny shrugs and holds them out. Lepi's eyes fall on them and then he just glares back up at Lenny's face.

"Nothing fucking fazes you."

He backhands Lenny's helmet and gifts him a mouth again, just before standing up.

"Why, thank you! But may I pose one teensy, humble little question?"

Lepi hunches in his annoyance, like he can't be assed to hold himself with his usual pride when it's just Lenny he's talking to. Given no answer, Lenny continues.

"Why did you come back?" he asks. "You know I would have recovered on my own."

Lenny quiets his thoughts, makes way for Lepi's voice as he waits for a response that doesn't come. He stands, considerably shorter than Lepi but still in no way beneath him.

"I think you scrambled my poor little brain when you slapped me. I'm not gonna remember how to get home until you answer my question! Ohhh, what to dooooo~"

A hiss invades his mind and Lepi tries so adorably to _scare_ Lenny, making his features so beastly, primal, sharp, dark. His skin scaly, his eyes red and shadowed, his teeth so large until they disappear into a tiny scowl-- and then even that fades away.

"Tell meeeee!" Lenny prompts again, like nothing happened.

Lepi removes all features from his face now. Lenny is normally quite good at reading people, but Lepi uses considerably less body language than the average person, and his expressions are anything but normal. It makes Lenny wonder if he'd actually be any easier to read, were he born normal and not as Life. It's not just the shapeshifting that makes him inscrutable.

But still, his personality is something Lenny can grasp. He's hiding out of stubbornness, covering a wound in his insurmountable pride.

"Is this your way of asking me to play hide and seek?" Lenny asks. "I believe we're both too old for that."

One of them, considerably moreso.

"If I were to hide, the _last_ thing I would want is to be sought by you, fiend," Lepi says. His voice flows unnaturally smooth through Lenny's mind-- an experience he doesn't get with anyone else.

"Gotta tell me!" Lenny continues to pester now that he finally got Lepi to talk again. "Tell me why you came back or I'll plague you forever!"

"I despise you."

"Clearly, you don't!"

Lepi narrows his eyes at him. Lenny sets his visor to be blank for a moment before flashing animated heart eyes on it.

"Go die."

"Would if I could, but I can't, so I shan't!"

"Everything you say infuriates me."

"You like me!"

"No."

"Then figure out how to revoke your gift."

Lenny's tone is suddenly serious, and it seems to catch Lepi off guard. He shuts off his visor's display.

"You are the one person who might have the potential to pose an actual threat to me. And yet you don't even try to do me this one favor," he says, almost accusatory but much too flat to come off as such. Really, he's more tired than anything.

Lepi seems to just ignore him again, until he finds his words.

"I do hate you. But there's something I hate more."

"It's what I stand for, isn't it? Or, stood for," he corrects. "You must have a considerable grudge against the current Death, too."

"Death is a natural part of life. All organic life eventually breaks down, and I accept that. Even the life of a butterfly is tragically fleeting, yet I would make no move to extend it beyond its intended span."

"Not all life," Lenny says, seeing as he's standing right in front of him.

"... Wrong. Someday, you'll get your wish, I guarantee you," Lepi assures him, eyes closed but not missing.

"If not death, then what is it you hate so much? What is it that made you come back?" he tries again.

"Is it so unbelievable that I don't wish for unnecessary suffering?"

Lenny actually laughs at that-- real, genuine laughter that bursts out of him, catching himself completely off guard. It's the funniest thing he's ever fucking heard. Lepi is either clueless or a hypocrite. Maybe his memory has gone bad. Maybe he thinks he hasn't caused suffering with his "improvements", that the inhabitants just hide from him for fun!

He does think that, Lenny can tell. He's egotistical enough for it. Motherfucker thinks ( _"knows"_ ) he's always right, and equates himself with his grade more than any other Harbinger Lenny has ever met. There have been two Wars that came close, a particularly cruel Famine, and a very eccentric Health, but none have ever reached Lepi's level. He thinks that, because he embodies Life, everyone must love him and want him.

"Are you done?" Lepi asks flatly. Lenny's laughter has settled and simmering anger and disbelief still swirl where it lied.

"Ahhhh... You're silly," he taunts. He does still love pissing him off, after all.

"Yes. "Silly". I'm "silly". I'm taking your limbs again now."

Lenny runs this time, and Lepi actually gives chase. He finds himself laughing again, even as Lepi sabotages his path and makes it increasingly difficult for him to weave around the fleshy obstacles that stretch out in front of him. Lepi himself has no trouble adjusting his body to the path before him, not breaking his stride even once.

When Lenny finally stops, it's to catch his breath. He manifests a knife just to surprise Lepi, just to leave a gash in his arm that's gone before Lenny can even blink. Lepi wrests the knife out of his hand and steps back, examining the damage done to his sleeve.

Lenny opens a portal while Lepi is distracted, but decides to wait until he's looking again to disappear through it. Curiously, Lepi just stares motionlessly as Lenny backs into the void, closing the door behind him. It seems even the chase was just a bluff.

If anyone is going to kill Lenny, he assumes he can't possibly rely on Lepi to be the one to get it done. The idea of waiting around for his next opposite turns his stomach, and Lenny decides to assume he simply doesn't want to have to wait that much longer. It's not like he hasn't seen plenty of other Harbingers come and go, after all. Why should Lepi be any different to him? Why should he matter to him, even the slightest bit?

Even if the person who claims to hate him more than anything seems to care more about him than anyone who was ever _supposed_ to.


End file.
